While some improvements in the pneumatic tire art are directed to the physical properties of the tires, other improvements are driven by a desire to enhance the appearance and marketability of the tire product or to improve safety by enhancing nighttime visibility. For example, numerous improvements have related to placing numerals, letters, characters or other indicia on the black sidewalls of rubber tires. The interest displayed by customers in the aesthetic appearance of automobiles, including the tires, has also resulted in the placement of colored portions on the tire sidewalls, such as white sidewall tires. Most recently, tire manufacturers have introduced colored treads, for instance the B. F. Goodrich Scorcher™, which has colored treads that refresh as the tire wears. These colored tires generally cost an additional $50–$80 per tire over the price of an all black tire. Original equipment (OE) manufacturers are now expressing an interest in tires with colored treads because of their unique aesthetic appearance or better nighttime visibility. However, the colored tread tires have been criticized because they leave undesirable markings on roads and driveways. This unintended color transfer may be particularly objectionable where roads have intentional colored markings designed to aid or control vehicular traffic patterns.
While most tires have a tread strip almost exclusively comprising a rubber composition that contains carbon black, and is therefore black in color, it would be desirable to provide a pneumatic tire that provides color for the aesthetic pleasure of consumers and to improve nighttime visibility, but that does not transfer color from the tire to roads and driveways. It is further desirable to provide a method of manufacture for such tires that does not add significant time or cost to the tire assembly process and is relatively simple to implement.